


Just A Dream

by Brumeier



Series: Bite Sized Fic 2020 [82]
Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Buffy The Vampire Slayer Fusion, Demons, Dreams and Nightmares, Dysfunctional Family, Friendship, Gen, High School, Prompt Fill, Teamwork
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:48:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26725435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brumeier/pseuds/Brumeier
Summary: LJ Comment Fic for 70s Songs prompt:Prodigal Son Malcolm Bright + any, Welcome to My Nightmare (Alice Cooper)In which Slayer Dani and her friends get stuck in a dream. Unfortunately, it's Malcolm's.
Series: Bite Sized Fic 2020 [82]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1610332
Comments: 7
Kudos: 15
Collections: Bite Sized Bits of Fic from 2020, Hurt/Comfort Bingo - Round 11





	Just A Dream

**Author's Note:**

> Also written for h/c bingo prompt: family

The last thing Dani remembered was being too slow to stop Edrisa from reading out the incantation she’d found tucked into one of Gil’s books. That girl was crazy smart, a lot weird, and impulsive at all the wrong times.

“Where are we?” Dani asked, keeping her voice down just in case.

She, Malcolm, and Edrisa were standing in an impossibly long hallway intermittently lit with flickering wall sconces that created pools of shadows that seemed to move, and there was a hum of voices just loud enough to hear but not separate into actual words. Far, far at the end of the hall was a closed door.

“I think I saw this in a movie once,” Edrisa said. “There was this family and they lived in a haunted subdivision and there was this clown –”

“It’s my nightmare.” Malcolm’s voice was so soft Dani almost didn’t hear it, but Edrisa abruptly stopped talking and looked at Malcolm with wide, apologetic eyes.

Malcolm was staring down the hall, and a statue had more expression on its face than he did. Dani reached out a tentative hand and touched his arm. 

“Malcolm?”

Before he could respond, the entire hallway shook and a roar sounded from behind the door. Edrisa gave a little scream and clutched Dani’s arm, but Malcolm didn’t seem scared at all. 

“He’s here,” Malcolm said. 

Dani thought she detected a tremor in his voice, and she suddenly understood. They were literally _inside_ Malcolm’s nightmare. Probably one he had all the time. Which meant the creature roaring behind that door was his dad. His demon dad.

“This is just a dream,” Dani said firmly. She slid her hand into Malcolm’s and he squeezed it hard. “We’re probably asleep in the library.”

“I’m sorry,” Edrisa said. “I shouldn’t have read that spell out loud. You told me not to, but it didn’t seem like anything bad.”

“Assume the worst,” Malcolm replied. But he leaned around Dani and offered Edrisa a weak smile. “I should be the one apologizing. My brain isn’t a great place to be.”

“Your brain is beautiful,” Edrisa said breathlessly.

Dani rolled her eyes. “When do you usually wake up, Malcolm?”

Malcolm kept a death grip on her hand. “We have to go through the door.”

“Then let’s do it and get out of here. I have a history test to study for.”

Dani felt a little like she was in that scene from _Wizard of Oz_ , where Dorothy and her weird friends were walking in to meet the Wizard. Edrisa had one arm looped through Dani’s, and Malcolm was still holding her other hand, and their progress through the shadows was slow.

Malcolm was suddenly jerked toward the wall, almost losing contact with Dani. Shadowy hands were tugging on him, and a shadowy, insubstantial arm wrapped around his chest.

“Malcolm!” Edrisa let go of Dani and grabbed hold of Malcolm’s other hand. 

Both girls pulled back with all their strength – and for a Slayer like Dani, it was considerable – and suddenly the hands let go. Malcolm staggered forward. 

“You okay?” Dani asked.

Malcolm nodded, his lips pressed into a thin, tight line.

It was Malcolm’s nightmare, so Dani wondered if he was the only one in danger. Just to be on the safe side, she sandwiched him between her and Edrisa.

They continued down the hall, and Dani was right. Everything that came from the shadows came for Malcolm – snakes, slimly tentacles, still more grasping hands – and every time she and Edrisa beat them back, until Malcolm was confident enough to fight back on his own behalf.

The surprised but triumphant look on his face when he successfully sent an oozing tentacle back to the shadows did funny things to Dani’s heart.

“It doesn’t usually go like this,” Malcolm said.

“You just needed two badass ladies on your side,” Edrisa said. One lens of her glasses was cracked and she had a smudge of something noxious across her cheek, but she was grinning from ear to ear.

And then they were at the door. It wouldn’t have been out of place in a giant’s castle; Dani almost couldn’t see the top of it.

“My dad’s in there,” Malcolm said. But he didn’t sound scared or emotionless this time.

“We’ll kick his ass, too,” Edrisa said confidently. 

“You might want to tone that down, Warrior Princess,” Dani replied. “We’re here to back you up, Malcolm. You’re not facing him alone.”

Malcolm gave her a grateful look, then raised his hands and pushed the door open.

Dani had been expecting a demon. Horns, scales, fangs, the usual kind of thing. But behind that humongous door was an older man with a beard and graying hair wearing a pair of white scrubs like a doctor.

“My boy! You’ve come to visit me. And you brought friends!”

“This is the scary dad?” Edrisa whispered to Dani.

“Looks can be deceiving,” Dani whispered back.

She knew that all too well. The most innocent-seeming person could be a blood-thirsty vampire, or worse. Sometimes the ugly, evil parts didn’t show on the outside.

“We’re not staying.”

Once Dani stopped looking at Malcolm’s dad, she saw there was another door. A child-sized one, in the opposite wall.

“But we have so much to talk about!”

“I have nothing to say to you,” Malcolm snapped. 

He pushed past his father, and then stopped short with his back to Dani and Edrisa.

“We’re the same,” Malcolm’s dad said. “You and me.”

Between one breath and the next he transformed, his eyes glowing red and his limbs stretching out grotesquely. His hands curled into claws and horns sprang from his forehead.

Malcolm let out a cry and dropped to his knees, curling in on himself until he was nearly in a fetal position. He made himself as small as possible, but Dani could see he’d changed as well, mirroring his father’s demonic appearance.

Edrisa ran to Malcolm’s side, squatting down next to him with a hand on his back, trying to soothe him. Dani squared off with Demon Dad.

“You’re not the same,” she said. “Not even a little. Malcolm is kind and good. He cares about people.”

Demon Dad growled at her and took a swipe in her direction with one of his gangly arms, but Dani did a tuck and roll.

“Tell him, Malcolm!” she shouted. “Tell him who you really are!”

“You can do it, Malcolm,” Edrisa encouraged. “I believe in you.”

“We’re the same!” Demon Dad said, his voice gone deep and ragged.

He caught Dani with a backhand, sending her flying across the room and crashing into the wall near the escape door. It took the breath out of her for a minute, but she was accustomed to being knocked around by demons and vamps.

“Stop it!” Malcolm yelled. He got to his feet and faced his father. “I’m nothing like you! You hurt people and ruin lives, and I would never do that! You only care about yourself. But I care about my family. And my friends. And they care about me!”

The more he talked, the more the demon aspects melted away until he was just Malcolm again. Edrisa stood beside him, glowering at Demon Dad in moral support.

“Let’s go, Malcolm,” Dani said, dusting herself off.

The three of them went to the child-sized door, ignoring Malcolm’s dad.

“Malcolm? Don’t go.”

Demon Dad had turned back into unassuming human-looking dad who sounded like his heart was breaking. Dani was proud of Malcolm, who didn’t even turn around.

She sent Malcolm and Edrisa through the door first, and followed behind them. The next thing she knew, she was waking up in the library, a crick in her neck from falling asleep with her head on the table.

She was exhausted.

“That was trippy,” Edrisa said. She had a line in her cheek from the book she’d fallen asleep on.

Malcolm still had his head pillowed on his arms, face hidden, and Dani could tell he was crying a little. She let him be.

“I’m gonna need some caffeine, or I’ll never be able to study for that test,” she said. “You want to go to Be the Bean with me?”

Edrisa paused in the middle of cleaning her glasses with her shirt. “Me? You want me to come?”

“We badass ladies need to stick together,” Dani replied with a grin.

Sure, the girl was weird. But Dani could count on her when there was trouble, and that mattered a whole lot more.

“Yes. Thanks!’

“Malcolm?” Dani asked.

He tried to surreptitiously wipe his eyes on his sleeves before he raised his head. “Sounds good to me.”

They walked out of the library together, leaving a mess of books for Gil to deal with the next day. It was time to get back to the real world.

**Author's Note:**

>  **AN:** I don’t know what it is about this ‘verse that tickles me so, but when I saw the prompt I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Plus I love me some team feels. ::grins::


End file.
